CATARRH, the technical appellation for what is vulgarly called " a cold," stands first on our list. It consists of an inflammation, more or less extended, and more or less violent, of the mem brane lining the nostrils, and hence reaching into and coating the inside of the windpipe and its branches. The symptoms denoting catarrh are fa miliar to every horse-keeper. A mucous or muco purulent discharge comes from the nostrils, the matter being white or yellow, according as it par takes more or less of mucus; the membrane lining the nose is seen to be very red and inflamed, when the nostrils are opened; there may or may not be swellings under the throat, or just beneath the roots of the ears; and there commonly is present a cough; to which may be added, should the catarrh prove severe, the animal grows dull and feverish. It is now ascertained that "a cold" is caught by going from a cold to a warm situation; and not from exposure to cold, as those who gave it the name imagined; therefore, it is that young unbroke hut SCJ di C the LUI lllll un subjects of it, and in par ticular at that period w hen they come to be re moved from pasture for domestication.
Catarrh itself requires very simple treatment; it is only to be regarded as offensive inasmuch as it may prove the precursor or lay the foundation of some other disease of injurious tendency; such as roaring or inflammation of the lungs, or even glanders. On this account it ought seldom, in its
mildest form, to be allowed to take its own course. In common cases, if we give the animal daily a ball composed of one dram of aloes, two drams of tartarized antimony, the same of ginger, with a sufficiency of syrup of buckthorn, and give him a bran or malt mash every night, with half an ounce of nitre mixed in it, and repeat this in the morning; about a week will perfectly reinstate him. In cases of much attendant fever, the animal should lose from two to four quarts of blood. The cough may be attacked either by a simple liniment rubbed un der the throttle, composed of two parts of harts horn, and one of sweet oil, or by blistering the throat with the Tincture of Cantharides. Some practitioners steam the nose with bran scalded in a nose-bag; for my own part, I have almost relin quished the practice, thinking that it oftener does harm than good.